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Monday, 9 May 2016

*Director-General of the National Pencom Commission (PenCom), Mrs Chinelo Anohu

Unless the federal
government quickly wades into the serious crisis currently rocking the
National Pension Commission (PENCOM) by effecting a leadership change,
the organisation may collapse andthe noble objective of ensuring effective pension administration in Nigeria will be defeated.

The
crisis, which has lingered for some time, is now worsening as senior
management staff of the organization are no longer comfortable with the
leadership of Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, who they claim has broken every rule
in the book since she assumed office as Director-General of the
organization.

Findings
at the Commission's headquarters in Abuja have revealed that besides
allegations of conflict of interest and sundry abuses, Pencom insiders
are particularly miffed at Director-General's continued use of contacts
in high places to run rough shod over everyone and every principle of
neutral and effective pension administration as a regulator.

They are baffled that this could be going on under the present administration.

It
would be recalled that Mrs Anohu assumed headship of the organization
in very controversial circumstances, having used her contacts in the
Presidency to pressure the National Assembly to reduce the statutory 20
years experience for headship of PENCOM to 15 years in order to
accommodate her. Industry watchers and lawmakers were scandalized by the
open arm-twisting but were handicapped by the powerful pressure her
backers brought to bear on the situation.

Very
senior management staff who spoke during the week on condition of
anonymity said that the current state of affairs confirmed their initial
fears that Anohu`s mode of entry into office was bound to impact
negatively on the reputation, performance and credibility of the
organization.

Like
most major industry stakeholders, they are outraged that she could
still be carrying on in her usual style, nearly one year after the
inauguration of a government that is avowedly fighting corruption and
abuse of office.

They
fear that the longer she stays as head of the Commission, the greater
the chance of the Federal Government losing everything it has worked for
in aid of effective pension administration in the country.

Five
directorate staff were particularly concerned that they may all soon
lose their jobs, and be termed accomplices in the DG`s acts of
arbitrariness, disregard for laid down procedure and penchant for acting
solo on sore matters of policy.

They
cited many petitions, letters of protest and industry reports that
could get all of them into trouble for what are essentially the actions
and activities of one person.

According
to the directorate staff, one of the latest of such recent petitions,
termed “unlawful Activities of the National Pension Commission” to
President Buhari detailing some really shocking things under their
watch, could get everyone into trouble.

The
petition in question was said to have drawn the attention of Mr.
President to the commission's routine disregard for court orders and
lack of transparency in the management of a particular pension
administrator which it purported to take over but has neither called any
annual general meeting nor published any audited accounts, filed any
annual returns with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), nor paid any
dividends to its shareholders.

Also,in
defiance of a court order restraining Anohu from removing some
directors and appointing an Interim Management, she did just that. This
action was in spite of a letter from the Attorney-General of the
Federation directing PENCOM to obey the court order.

Indeed,
PENCOM staffers, particularly senior management staff, some former
board members and industry stakeholders, are afraid that details of
several arbitrary and irresponsible actions of the DG, in her bid to
push the funds under this particular pension fund administrator into the
custody of another PFA owned and managed by her family may soon become
public knowledge.

Investigations
have shown that the mood at PENCOM today is that the Federal Government
should not allow the DG`s personal interests to put everyone else,
including hapless pensioners, into trouble; as PENCOM staff are not
shareholder in the firm being currently managed by her brother who took
over after her mother.